A sheep in wolf's clothing : levels of deceit and detection in the evolution of communication
department or school: Science, Faculty of
department or school: Zoology, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Zareyan, Shahab
issued: 2018-12-21T16:31:51Z
issued: 2018
related degree: Master of Science - MSc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Trivers has hypothesized that self-deception in our species has evolved for the better deception of others: in an arms race between deception and deception-detection, the dishonest individuals evolve ever-more complex trickery and the deceived an ever-more refined ability to distinguish honesty from deception. Detection at some point becomes so precise that a degree of self-deception can evolve to avoid emitting secondary cues that otherwise give away the deceit. In an attempt to formalize this, we focus on aspects of self-deception that can be generalized to non-humans, as human self-deception by itself relies on concepts that are difficult to define or to apply to other organisms. We formally explore one central aspect of Trivers' hypothesis: the evolution of costly and well-integrated or deep deceptive morphs that span multiple signals and cues. We demonstrate that the depth of deception in a communicative interaction is correlated with the number of signals detected, the cost of errors in judgment for signal detectors, and the benefits of successful deception. We also show that the frequency of well-integrated deceptive strategies is highest when the cost of errors in judgment is high and the cost of detection of other less well-integrated forms of deception is low. These results may partially explain variation in deception in nature and provide researchers with predictions that can be tested empirically, with obvious implications for self-deception. Moreover, we argue that self-deception under Trivers' hypothesis is the product of a hierarchical system, in this case, the cognitive system, with some parts (ex. the subconscious) controlling and ultimately manipulating the information that is received by other parts (ex. the conscious). Although we do not model this, we emphasize that hierarchies are integral parts of many systems such as gene regulatory networks. Thus, in response to an arms race with an adversary, these hierarchies can potentially evolve ``inter…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/68122
note: A Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing: Levels of Deceit andDetection in the Evolution of CommunicationbyShahab ZareyanB.Sc., Honours in Biology and Minor in Mathematics, 2017a thesis submitted in partial fulfillmentof the requirements for the degree ofMaster of Scienceinthe faculty of graduate and postdoctoralstudies(Zoology)The University of British Columbia(Vancouver)December 2018c© Shahab Zareyan, 2018The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend tothe Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesisentitled:A Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing: Levels of Deceit and Detectionin the Evolution of Communicationsubmitted by Shahab Zareyan in partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree of Master of Science in Zoology.Examining Committee:Christoph Hauert, MathematicsCo-SupervisorSarah Otto, ZoologyCo-SupervisorDarren Irwin, ZoologyAdditional ExaminerAdditional Supervisory Committee Members:Michael Doebeli, Zoology and MathematicsSupervisory Committee MemberiiAbstractTrivers has hypothesized that self-deception in our species has evolved for thebetter deception of others: in an arms race between deception and deception-detection, the dishonest individuals evolve ever-more complex trickery andthe deceived an ever-more refined ability to distinguish honesty from de-ception. Detection at some point becomes so precise that a degree of self-deception can evolve to avoid emitting secondary cues that otherwise giveaway the deceit.In an attempt to formalize this, we focus on aspects of self-deceptionthat can be generalized to non-humans, as human self-deception by itselfrelies on concepts that are difficult to define or to apply to other organisms.We formally explore one central aspect of Trivers’ hypothesis: the evolutionof costly and well-integrated or deep deceptive morphs that span multiplesignals and cues. We demonstrate that the depth of deception in a commu-nicative interaction is correlated with the number of signals detected, thecost …
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2019-02
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0375804
language: eng
degree discipline: Zoology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
type: Other
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/68122